Snapchat Settles With Ousted Co-Founder

After a long legal battle, Snapchat has come to a settlement with Reggie Brown, who claimed he was a third co-founder of the wildly successful company. “His suit alleged that he had been a third co-founder alongside CEO Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, the technology chief, and that they had kicked him out one month before the photo-sharing app launched in July 2011″. Spiegel and Murphy recently admitted that they did not come up with the idea for Snapchat on their own, and Brown was involved in the process. The company is now valued at $10 Billion, when Brown filed the lawsuit in February 2013 it was valued at $70 million. The terms of the settlement have not been released.

A statement released Tuesday revealed, “Reggie Brown originally came up with the idea of creating an application for sending disappearing picture messages while he was a student at Stanford University”. Spiegel had initially referred to the suit as frivolous and having no evidence to support the allegations. Spiegel and Murphy had recently joined Forbe’s Billionaire ranks, this wealth initially threatened with the Lawsuit filed by Brown. Although settlement was reached, it is very likely that Brown will walk away with less than a one-third share, which he initially sought when filing. However, nowhere has Brown been referred to as a co-founder of the company.

Snapchat conveniently announced the settlement while all eyes were on Apple’s product launch event. This was most likely in hopes news of the settlement would be lost in the shuffle of all things Apple. Spiegel stated, “We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter in a manner that is satisfactory to Mr. Brown and the Company. We acknowledge Reggie’s contribution to the creation of Snapchat and appreciate his work in getting the application off the ground”. It seems Brown will be fairly compensated for his contribution to the success of the app.